Graphene Breakthrough Could Give Rise To Superfast Transistors

Researchers at Manchester University, who earlier succeeded in isolating graphene, have come up with another way to manufacture transistors. The new method involves enforcing a band gap into the material, thus making it better suited to be transformed into transistors.

Graphene is widely known for its remarkable physical characteristics like superconductivity - the ability to conduct electricity with almost no electrical resistance - which is a massive disadvantage when in a traditional computer. A (theoretical) CPU built with graphene transistors would melt because of the amount of current being leaked.

But all thanks to Konstantin Novosalev and Andre Geim, two Nobel prize winning physicists, a new way has been found to force graphene into showing just the sort of conductivity, that would be suitable for using it in transistors. The new method involves inserting a layer of molybdenum disulphide between a pair of graphene sheets.

"An obstacle to the use of graphene as an alternative to silicon electronics has been the absence of an energy gap between its conduction and valence bands, which makes it difficult to achieve low power dissipation in the OFF state," the researchers stated, as reported by the Science Mag.

The discovery could pave the way for a new generation of semiconductors that would replace Silicon as the building material for chips and electronic components.